By Gary Polakovic
The
Press-Enterprise
® But experts say a vital Pacific Flyway rest stop is becoming a killing field.
It is big, wet and loaded with food. Countless waves of birds journey thousand of miles over ocean and mountain to find it, establishing the Salton Sea as one of the nation's premier bird sanctuaries and a critical pit stop along the Pacific Flyway.
An egret is reflected in a
lake within the Salton Sea
ecosystem.
Steve Medd /The
Press-Enterprise
Stephan Sedam-Stone /The Press-Enterprise
Glistening like a diamond hewn from the desert's rocky canyons and bone-dry playas, the sea stretches out like a 35-mile -long landing strip smack in the middle of the driest part of the flyway. Its pull is irresistible, drawing an average of 2 million travel-weary birds each winter.
It is the last United States stop on the flyway, a strategic jump off point for birds following ancestral migratory routes from the Yukon to Mexico and points farther south. The Salton Sea is one of seven major Western wetlands along the flyway, no less important than the San Francisco Bay, Mono Lake, the Central Valley or Oregon's Klamath Basin, experts say.
One million of the 6 million waterfowl, mostly ducks and geese, that travel the flyway are destined for the Salton Sea, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Hundreds of thousands of shore birds, including gulls, sandpipers and avocets, rely on the sea. It has been designated a wetland of international importance for shore birds by the Pacific Flyway Project at the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, which monitors bird migrations. The Salton Sea is nearly as valuable to shore birds as Chesapeake Bay, the Great Salt Lake and the Copper River Delta in Alaska, said observatory biologist Dave Shuford.
Birds of every conceivable
size, shape and squawk can be found at the sea. To date, 380
species have been identified, including bald eagles,
flamingos, Canadian geese, roadrunners and yellow-billed
cuckoos, to name a few. Only the Laguna Atascosa National
Wildlife Refuge in Texas boasts more species
diversity. "If the Salton Sea were just
to disappear, we would be at risk of losing vast numbers of
migratory birds," said Kimball Garrett, ornithologist at the
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. "I don't think
it would be an exaggeration to call it critically
important." "The sea is one of the major
ones (migratory bird habitats) and one of the few remaining
ones for Southern California," John Borneman, western
regional representative for the national Audubon
Society. But the sea is becoming an
attractive nuisance. Pollution looms as a major menace to
the birds that reach the sea. Cracked and dented
eggshells, the calling card of DDT poisoning, are routinely
found in nests. The toxin is likely contributing to nesting
failures seen in great egrets, black-crowned night herons
and other colonial water birds, scientists say. The specter of selenium
haunts the Salton Sea, too. Quantities of the metalloid
substance, which is more toxic than arsenic, exceed
thresholds known to cause deformities in embryos and chicks.
Geese graze in a field in
the Salton Sea wildlife refuge. Steve
Medd/The Press-Enterprise
Selenium destroyed birds at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge
near Los Banos a decade ago, although deformities have not been
positively identified in Salton sea birds.
Two studies show waterfowl
rapidly accumulate toxics during their winter stay at the
Salton Sea. Hungry and fatigued after strenuous,
long-distance flights, birds gorge themselves on fish and
invertebrates once they reach the sea to fatten up for the
next leg of their journey. But in the process, they are
accumulating dangerous quantities of toxicants, the studies
by scientists at the University of California's Lawrence
Livermore Laboratory and UC Davis show. Fish are a big lure to the
sea, but they are dying. Hypersaline Salton Sea water has
started to subvert their reproduction, threatening one of
the state's richest fisheries with collapse, probably within
a decade. Fish-eating birds -- including pelicans,
cormorants, herons, egrets and ospreys -- will dwindle in
numbers, scientists say. In addition, shooters blast
hundreds of birds from the sky each year. Some are taken for
game. Others are eradicated as pests, their carcasses
sometimes tossed in heaps and burned. As a result, some of the
sea's most abundant species are in sharp decline. Cattle egrets, snowy egrets,
double-crested cormorants and black-crowned night herons no
longer nest at the Salton Sea National wildlife Refuge. The
number of the great blue herons nesting at the refuge has
declined by 95 percent in six years. Across the sea, nesting
populations of all the large, fish-eating colonial water
birds have fallen sharply in recent years. "It's a critically important
habitat for birds, but it's almost bordering on being an
attractive nuisance. As certain toxins buildup, as salinity
increases, as agricultural runoff runs off, one worries
about the survival of birds that use the sea," Garrett
said. Tragically, even in its
compromised condition, the Salton Sea is irreplaceable.
There just are not many places like it left
anymore. Development has wiped out 91
percent of California's wetlands, more than any other state
in the union. In the 18th century, the state harbored 5
million acres of low-lying marshes, ponds, riparian forest
and soggy meadows. Today, 454,000 acres remain, according to
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Of the
wetlands that remain, many are in sorry shape. In the arid West, where
water must be used twice or more, many wetlands and wildlife
refuges, including the Salton Sea, are fed by agricultural
runoff. But farm drain water is often loaded with
pesticides, fertilizers, heavy metals, selenium and other
compounds hazardous to wildlife. Stephen
Sedam-Stone/The Press
Enterprise
The Fish and Wildlife Service found in a 1990 study that about 60
percent of the nation's 478 refuges had at least one activity harmful
to wildlife. Jet skiing, military practice bombing, overgrazing and
mining were identified.
"We have a lot of conflicting uses, said Carey Smith, migratory bird coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Pacific region.
All the more reason to keep the Salton Sea healthy, say the scientists. With its miles of shallow bays, three river deltas, nutrient rich alkaline waters, prolific plankton production, a diverse fisher, all surrounded by roughly 3,000 miles of reed-lined canals, the sea is among the best of what is left.
Deterioration of the Salton Sea environment could have a devastating effect on some species.
Take white pelicans, for example. Only 100,000 breeding pairs remain in North America and nearly half of them winter at the sea. In spring, they launch practice flights toward Mt. San Gorgonio, a two-mile high peak north of the sea, and back to the sea in preparation for the arduous mountain crossing and long trip north to Mono Lake and ultimately southern Canada and the pacific Northwest, explained Norm Hogg, biologist at Santa Monica College.
Elimination of the Salton Sea would force the pelicans to begin their return migration from the Gulf of California adding up to another 200 miles to the first leg of the trip and probably assuring some birds will die on the way, Hogg said.
"It's like if you imagine driving from here to Portland without a single gas station or fast food place along the way. You just couldn't make it," Garrett said.
Eared grebes rely heavily on the sea. Of the 2 million grebes in North America, half migrate to the sea from Utah and the Great Basin states.
In January, 150,000 grebes died at the Salton Sea, killing 8 percent of their population in a single swipe, one of the largest bird die-offs in recent U.S. history. Disease, selenium or perhaps both killed the birds, scientists say.
The Salton Sea is California's only inland breeding location for three species -- black skimmers, gull-billed terns and fulvous whistling ducks.
"Birds just don't go from the Canadian arctic to Mexico in one trip. The Salton Sea, Mono Lake and these other bodies of water in the West are crucial. They are vitally important for migration species to use as a stopover."
Bob McKernan, biologist at the San Bernardino County Museum
"If the Salton Sea were gone, there would be no more gull-billed terns" in the state, save a few stragglers blown off course from other migratory routes, said Bob McKernan, biologist at the San Bernardino County Museum. "There just aren't that many places left."
About 100,000 waterfowl converge on the sea every winter. About one in five of all pintail ducks on the Pacific Flyway spend time at the Salton Sea. About 25,000 snow geese leave the Anderson River Delta and Banks Island, Canada, to winter at the sea. Ten thousand ruddy ducks stop over, too.
Five endangered animal species live in the Salton Sea area: bald eagles, peregrine falcons, brown pelicans, desert pupfish and the Yuma clapper rail. One third of all the remaining clapper rails are found at the sea.
About 400 snowy plovers, a small tide-trotting bird that camouflages perfectly against sand, inhabit the sea. They are candidate for endangered species protection.
Ross's goose, one of the rarest species of geese in the world, makes its winter home at the sea.
Said McKernan: "Birds just don't go from the Canadian arctic to Mexico in one trip. The Salton Sea, Mono Lake and these other bodies of water in the West are crucial. They are vitally important for migratory species to use as a stopover."